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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I < /» tf» < * — ■ ^^ -i*^ ■ A^««i«W*>^ .« St . i' FRAGILE fiU' PAPGR !N THIS VOLUME IS BRirTLE PLEASE HANDLE WITH CARE ■• •-^jmr. -^« S- ■ ■ r J - .'\ .". I V (■> F ^,v * I Copyrigat, 1906, by EATON & MAINS. PREFACE. The aim of this book is to represent Korean affairs from the standpoint of the Korean. The writer has endeavored to look through Korean eyes at the acts of foreigners, in their atti- tude toward Korea, and search for their interpreta- tion from the Korean standpoint; to illustrate the customs of the people and their habits of thought ; to show that the Asiatic loves, hates, fears, hopes and sacrifices for his ideals, the same as does his West- ern brother ; to show the great struggle of new Ko- rea for a better life; to illustrate the type of man- hood that is leading the people toward reform ; to awaken sympathy for a people who have become the victims of an unjust exploitation by a foreign power. The characters and incidents here related are his- torical. Where it has been necessary to enlarge upon them, the traditions and spirit of the people have been faithfully followed. For obvious reasons names of persons still living and names of some places connected with them have been changed. Whether the writer has succeeded in his purposes or not, is left to the judgment of the kindly sympa- thetic reader. CONTENTS PAGE The Royal Recorder 1 1 Promise of New Dignity 23 An Interruption 29 On the Tong River 35 A Magistrate 48 The Foreigner 59 Searching for a Bride 66 A Spirit from the West 75 Perils of the Great Tong River 92 The Hermitage 126 Victims of War 149 The Condemned Minstrel 158 The Contract, and an Execution 168 Panic 177 Convalescence 190 The New Faith 203 Home « 209 The Search 218 Under Arrest 234 Attack on the Palace 243 Storms in the Capital 259 The Search Continued 268 Search Rewarded 288 Until Death 297 For Conscience* Sake 309 Dangers Ahead 323 For His Cotintry 339 ILLUSTRATIONS Ewa • .Frontispiece Women at Sung-yo*s Home Facing Page 20 Burden Bearers ^. . . . ** ** 82 A Merchant ** ** 152 Sung-yo Dressed in Mourning for His Father ** ** 214 Where Korea and Japan Meet *• ** 264 CHAPTER I The Royal Recorder I WOULD not be true to that which the Korean holds dearest in life, namely, the reverence due his ancestors, if I did not, in these first lines, introduce the reader to my father, the Royal Recorder, who was the head of the great Kim clan of the North, and also, to the home over which he ruled. At a distance, the Sung-ji^ mansion resembled a fortification. A wall enclosing a small village of roofs formed a rectangle of nearly three thousand square yards. It was eight feet high, covered with huge tile coping, but here the resemblance to a forti- fication ceased. Above the wall, within the enclo- sure, rose the buildings of our home. They were, like the wall, rectangular in shape, with broad gables and massive roofs resembling the hills that towered above them. The eaves of the roofs, from center to corners, sloped up and outward, giving the group of buildings an airiness, like a dancing girl with her arms raised aloft posed for the dance. The suggestion of humor was enhanced by the arrange- ment of the buildings. They stood at all angles, as if they had paused in the midst of a mad frolic and *Royal Recorder. U 12 Ewa: a Tale of Korea were peering over the walls at a noisy, chattering brook that half encircled the outside of the enclo- sure. The great compound was flanked at the back by a high range of hills called "The Mistress of the Tong River." It rose sharply out of the narrow valley and turned southward by the side of the river with long graceful strides, swinging from its ever- green sides a voluminous trail, which, folding out and in, revealed a village here and hid another there. Days, when the winds blew heavily from the south and hurtled up through the mountain peaks, there was heard a sobbing and moaning sound, so that, it was said, demons of the mountains were struggling and shouting in the storm. The main entrance to the enclosure was a huge gate over which, supported by four posts, was an upper structure sheltering a room that opened on four sides, where, in the time of our prosperity, hung a ponderous drum and other instruments of music. Here the curfew was played, and not rung, as is the habit in some lands. The curfew at my home was an imitation of the cunning fiction practiced at the country magistra- cies, which regarded the unwalled towns as possess- ing gates to be closed and opened, at regulated times, for the protection of the people. Thus, at night, the people would be called from their toil, and again, in the unreasonable hours of the early cock- crowing, the drums and horns would roar out. Ewa: a Tale of Korea 13 announcing to the sleepy denizens that the gates to the town, of which there were none, were open and the people permitted to engage in their daily toil. Just inside the main gate stood a small building which inspired my boyhood with awe, exceeded only by the fear that I held for the ghosts and hobgoblins who were hidden in the top of the Mistress of the Tong River. This was the guest house where my father received governors, magistrates, and other high officials who were ready to make long journeys to our country home to solicit favor of the man who stood in the Imperial Presence when at the capital. The building boasted of two rooms separated by an unusually heavy partition, behind which, it was understood, the great Sung-ji on rare occasions imparted his whispered confidences. The floor of the main room, covered with oiled paper, was polished daily by a slave girl till it shone like a mirror. As a boy, in the absence of the usual awe-inspiring dignity, I often gamboled on its slip- pery surface and measured the room, six strides one way and four the other. The furniture of the larger room, where guests wiere received, consisted of a large brass candlestick that reached from the floor as high as one's head; the brasier, usually filled with coals for the convenience of the long pipes of guests, and cushions, arranged in order about the room, giving it a sense of luxury. The wall was papered white and decorated with many impossible 14 Ewa: a Tale of Korea figures by a skilled artist from the capital, and ban- ners hung from the walls covered with quotations from the classics. The room was warmed by flues passing under the house from a fireplace sheltered at one side, where, often as a boy, I fed into its raven- ous maw the pine bough cut from the mountainside and laughed as I dodged the flame that licked out hungrily at me. As I remember my father last, his hair was as white as snow. It was held in place by a band fas- tened with punctilious neatness about his head, after the style of all our people. Over the band was drawn a skull cap that opened at the top and expanded with projections at the four sides, bearing a decided re- semblance to a crown. His face was round, eyes black, with overhanging brows, mouth slightly drooped at the corners and closed firmly, as if he were in the habit of commanding. I best remember him seated on a large cushion in the guest room on ^j^ side farthest from the door. At his back, run- ning friwm wall to wall, a silk screen adorned with autiful needle-work representing forests, birds, nd animals. He usually wore a silk coat dyed red, over a suit of purest white. To me, his voice was always kind, and peering back through the troublous years filled with painful incidents which I am about to relate, I see my father. His benign face and gentle look caress me still, and make the sheet of paper under my hand grow dim. Ewa: a Tale of Korea ig WTien in the capital my father's business was to watch the Emperor and write down all his Majesty's acts, however trivial. It was frequently the case that a close intimacy would spring up between the Emperor and his creature, the Sung-ji, that was de- nied all other officials, and my father, it was said, often jogged his Majesty's elbow to the advantage of many of his friends, and sometimes to the confu- sion of his enemies, till he was known as "His Ma- jesty's Friend." At the period of which I write the fortune of the great Sung-ji had been fast fading away, and many were the schemes devised by which it was hoped that our family would become thoroughly reestablished before he should close his career among the great of earth. Haste in the matter seemed necessary, as that ruthless arbiter. Time, was making sad havoc of this stately patrician of Korean society. He had held the enviable rank of Sung-ji in the Emperor's service for twenty years, an office denied the North country for a period of more than three hundred y^ars. A powerful family by the name of Song gained control over Korean politics somewhere about 1560, and so successfully connived for its own interests as to secure the passage of a law disquali- fying any man living in the northern provinces from securing that rank. "How," they asked, "is it possible for any good to come out of the North ?" i6 Ewa: a Tale of Korea For centuries the question itself sufficed to settle all cavil. Excellency in scholarship was not decided from the merits of the thesis written at the national examinations, but from the locality in which the man lived. When a man was presented for prefer- ment his ancestry was carefully reviewed, and if it was found that the candidate had been so culpable as to have allowed his family to take root in the North country, even though it were a thousand years previous to his own birth, he was quietly turned down, unless, indeed, he had vast sums of money to pay for his rank, and even then he was treated in a spirit of tolerance, but not of fellowship. The spirit of resentment and jealousy in the North which grew through these years at some periods threatened the country with a revolution ; but when my father secured the rank of Sung-ji it was believed to be a death blow to the old regime, and the whole North rejoiced; while in the South, the innovation was viewed with dismay. The most astonished man among Korea's millions was my father himself. He regarded his good fortune as the gift of the gods which augured well for his descendants through all time. It came about in this way: my grandfather had inherited a large fortune and by shrewd industry had added to it until he was one of the wealthiest landholders in the country. Success seemed to crown his every effort till, it was said, when he Ewa: a Tale of Korea 17 launched a chip on the river it floated back to him acres of lumber. Finally he began to yearn and struggle for national rank. It is fair to him to say that his ambition was more in behalf of his posterity than for himself, with the hopes, however, that a clan of great men would sacrifice at his grave through the centuries to come. His passion for rank and political preferment burned into his life with an intensity only equaled by the passion of a gambler. He made trips to the capi- tal, spending vast sums of money to curry favor with • the powers that controlled these national gifts. Finally he collected all he had, besides the lands around his immediate home, and left for Seoul, resolved that he would not return until he had secured the position he coveted. While at the capital, in this desperate search for rank, he met Prince An, who, in the whirl of for- tune's wheel, became in after years the Prince Re- gent of Korea, At this date, however, he was very poor and without great influence. My grandfather deposited with him a large sum of money and received in return the usual empty promises. Prince An had a son for whom my grandfather took a great fancy and spent whole days in making kites for him and in teaching the boy how to fly them. As he spent much of his time at the home of the Prince, the lad and he were great companions. My grandfather was, it has been stoutly argued, 1 8 Ewa: a Tale of Korea quite unconscious of any possibility that the boy would ever be any other than a playmate to him, but, as he was a great connoisseur of national rank and royal genealogy, he may have possessed knowl- edge of some facts that gave course to his kites and length to their strings. Finally the Emperor died, and having left no chil- dren, the country was searched for an heir to the throne. Musty records were produced ; claimants in great numbers came forward, but were rejected. At last it was proven beyond a doubt that the son of Prince An was the legitimate heir to the throne. In the meantime my grandfather had returned to his home a discouraged man. He had struggled against constant defeat and had fretted his life threadbare. He went away vigorous and in the prime of manhood, but returned an old man. As soon as the new King took his throne he re- membered his old playmate and dispatched a courier to call him to Seoul as the one whom the King would delight to honor. The messenger found the home in mourning and the oldest son, my father, hastened to the capital to bear the tidings of his father's death to the boy King. On arriving he was received with many marks of regard and honored with the rank of Sung-ji. His appointment to this rank and its privileges stirred the whole country, and so earnestly and effectually did the officials at the capital protest that Ewa: a Tale of Korea ig there has not been a repetition of the appointment to this day. In this country, newly married people do not sepa- rate from the original stock, but each new family gathers under the parental roof, and the original household grows small only by dying off at the top, so that, in the palmy days of my father's prosperity, more than fifty persons comprised our home, besides a large number of servants quartered in the village outside of the compound. I, being the youngest son, enjoyed the advantages which are the usual privileges of that member of a family. Idleness and incapacity, the ideals for chil- dren of the rich and those of rank, became my lot. Discouraged from taking robust physical exercise, I developed the physical effeminacy which is sup- posed to be the mark of a gentleman. Keeping the creases out of my silk coat, my hands white and my little finger nails long were the burdensome occupa- tions of my life, until about five years previous to the period of which this story relates I became greatly attached to a young man by the name of Kim Tong- siki,^ seven years my senior, who, it seems to me, was the most remarkable man of these disturbed times. My home was composed differently from what critics of the late reform movements would call ideal * "Kim," is the clan name and "Tong-siki" is the name received from his parents on reaching? his majority. In this case and in others of which this stoiy relates the clan name will be dropped. 20 Ewa: a Tale of Korea or intolerable. I was not the son of my father's real wife. If at this time I had been called upon to debate the question of the proposed marriage re- forms, I would have asked first for their motives: national economics, improvement of society, utilita- rian, or ideal ? In any case, it would be a reflection on our honored ancestry and might raise the ques- tion of my right to existence. Though I am the son of a concubine, I am glad that I am here. My phi- losophy may be selfish, and I might wish, for the sake of a beautiful creed, that such as I had not been. The sages have taught us, and there are many of us who believe their teaching true, that there will be a time when we all shall have been absorbed in the mother of all life. In such a scheme to argue out of existence one's personality, it might be as consist- ent to regret the past as to hope for the future. I fancy, however, that Nirvana, into which Buddhism says we are drifting, and asks us to be glad at the perfection of this system of annihilation, would be less attractive if it was not distant and inevitable. One fact is certain — I am here, and when I am hungry I would rather have a homely meal than listen to a fine discourse on the palace bill of fare. An older brother and I were the only living sons of the great Sung-ji. That fact was the source of much sorrow on the part of my father. Daughters crowded the compound and fluttered about the ram- bling old homestead in such numbers that he was as SUNG-YO S HOME ^ Ewa: a Tale of Korea 21 little able to keep track of them as was his desire to do so. Thirteen lived to weep under the hard hands of mothers-in-law. "Sons are a blessing, and daughters are a curse," he would say, yet dimpled cheeks and laughing eyes followed him everywhere. A smile from him would set the hills to echoing with merry laughter. The fact that girls are not supposed to be worth the pos- session of names frequently produces interesting scenes. "Which one are you?" the Sung-ji would ask, pinching a pair of pink cheeks. "Rat," would be the reply. "Yes, yes," he would say, "what are the rest doing?" "Pig, Cat and Rascal are playing with Twelve and Thirteen and — " "Yes, yes, never mind, off with you to your play," would be his reply. Among our servants were a number of female slaves, and, through marriage, three male members of that class who refused their freedom though granted by the law unless their wives could go with them, deliberately choosing to suffer with their fami- lies rather than seek their own freedom. On these slaves often fell all the ills of the home. One of their number was more to me than any of my other play- mates. It was not often that my father so far lost himself as to lay violent hands on anyone ; but if at 22 Ewa: a Tale of Korea any time his wrath was aroused and there was no other outlet the slightest provocation would bring speedy vengeance upon the head of the unlucky slave. I was about seven years old, when, one day, I hap- pened in the yard and found all our servants gath- ered, their interest centered upon some object in their midst. Out of curiosity and unnoticed I pushed my way to the center of the circle and what I saw fol- lowed me as a shadowing nightmare long afterward. A man lay bound down to the beams of a rough cross, his arms extended, and stripped of nearly all his clothing. Our head servant stood by directing another who was leaning on a long paddle. At a signal the paddle was raised and brought down on the thighs of the prostrate man. A spasmodic up- ward throw of the head brought his face in my direction, revealing the face of my playmate slave. Sudden anger choked me, and in my puny wrath I ran to stop the next blow. It fell more lightly on my arm, the marks of which I still carry with me. The consternation that followed resulted in the release of the slave. For slight acts of kindness, this class of people gave me an affection that I found not elsewhere; and it is the sweet memories that hover around the name of one of these helpless children of misfortune that inspire me to relate the incidents of this tale. CHAPTER II Promise of New Dignity At the age of eighteen I was made aware of the scandalous fact that I was not married. This cer- tainly was an abnormal state of affairs for one in our grade of society. It was the result partly from my dislike of such a move, partly from my mother's in- dulgence, but mainly from my father's straitened financial affairs. Like my grandfather, he had spent large sums of money in the effort to buy rank for my ambitious brother, with the result of a well-fed official in the capital, many empty promises and the loss of a large part of his estate. His service to the King brought little revenue; but while enough! of his estate remained to maintain the tradition of the clan hospitality, and the rank was still attached to our name, it was sufficient for the dignity of a gentleman. I fear the losses disturbed me little as they served to postpone my unwelcome prospects of marriage. Finally negotiations were afoot to dispose of me in a fitting manner, though, as was said, it was shamefully late. A young lady four years my senior was chosen to be honored as my bride. She lived three hundred miles from my home, and I had never 24 Ewa: a Tale of Korea heard of her before. I exercised every means pos- sible to find out something about her, and grew angry at our customs that treat the bride and groom as if they were the least interested persons in the transaction. By bribing the go-between I learned that the young lady was deformed, or scarred from some great accident. My protests were listened to with patient indulgence as something to be expected from the youngest member of the family. They told me that I had been misinformed, not with the inten- tion of saying that the girl was not deformed, but it was the easiest way to say, "Young man, behave yourself." Like any other of my countrymen I sub- mitted to what I called my fate. Obedience is the first law of the household, and therein I think we are not behind the best civilized nations of the world. While the prospects of my coming marriage were hateful to me, I had no thought of disobeying. Perhaps, if at the time I had known to what my rebellious feelings would lead me, I would have welcomed the fate of a marriage with this unknown creature. Western nations are fond of saying that It is this spirit that has been the curse of our country. We have lacked, they say, the virile conception of what is right and readiness to suffer for it, and a willingness to enter the hurly- burly necessary for the reformation of our tyran- nical customs. Our nation, they inform us with callous frankness, has become a byword among the Ewa: a Tale of Korea 25 nations of the world because we lack the courage to fight down the wrongs inflicted upon us by unjust laws and official oppression. They call us cowards, not remembering that it takes no less courage to suffer patiently than to seek revenge. As preparations for the wedding moved slowly forward I became the object of interest and con- siderable attention, now that the disgrace of bache- lordom was to be removed and the dignity of man- hood assumed by having my hair put up in a top- knot. The side of the question that brought me satisfaction was the prospect of being addressed in good language and treated with the respect due a married man. About this time there came many rumors from the South that foreign nations had nearly all made treaties with our government. Strange rumors had reached us of these barba- rians from the West, their curious customs and in- comprehensible names. It was said that they were all large of stature and dressed in black, the con- clusion being that if they dressed in black they must be very dirty; but of course one should not be sur- prised at that, for what could one expect of barba- rians ? They were said to have piercing eyes, large noses and huge mouths, restless, energetic habits, ignorant of our customs and impolite. It was rumored and believed by most people that they used human flesh for medicine. Some of them en- 26 Ewa: a Tale of Korea gaged in trade as merchants at the open ports, others were representatives of their governments, while others did not engage in trade or business of any kind, but spent their whole time in teaching a strange religion. These last had penetrated our North country to the famous city of Pyeng-Yang, a city situated on the river fifty miles from our home. Up to that date I had never seen a foreigner, but since then I have associated with many of them. Some of our first impressions were wrong; but of others, among which are things not flattering, we have had no reason to change our opinion. When that part of the mansion to which I was to bring my bride had been properly fitted up with its bright new paper and freshly oiled floors, it smiled out happily at me and seemed to be stretch- ing its eaves jovially skyward as if the sheltering of brides was the jolliest kind of pastime; then I be- came almost contented to make friends with my fortune. My father had business relations with wealthy men who resided in the city of Pyeng-Yang, and the interests of my approaching wedding made it desirable for someone to visit the city. To my de- light, it was proposed to send my friend, Tong-siki, and myself to look after these affairs. My experi- ence did not justify responsibility in business mat- ters, so they were placed in the hands of Tong-siki. Ewa: a Tale of Korea 27 I was delighted with the prospects of a sight of the city with its many shops, the news of the distant outside world, and then, too, perhaps I would have a chance to see the strange foreigner from the West. From the discussions relating to our intended journey I picked up new facts regarding the family of my future alliance. The young lady whom I was to honor by accepting as my bride, having no name of her own, was known as the daughter of Mr. Yi. That gentleman some years previous had discarded his first wife, the mother of the nameless girl, and had taken another and prettier than she. He had o\yned considerable rice land in that section of the country, which up to the present had supported his first wife. Now, however, on the marriage of her daughter, the property would pass to the hands of my father, to be held secure for me until the time when he should need it no more. This arrangement, while seeming heartless in its treatment of the girl's mother, was an effort to save the lands from the avaricious magistrates, who had begun a new system of squeezing, and there was no way to satiate their ravenous appetites. My father was supposed to be the only man in the North whose property was se- cure. Mr. Yi, at one time, held powerful influence at the capital, but in the game of politics had lost it all. For the present proposed transfer of prop- erty he was to be repaid by friendly political in- fluence that my father might be able to render him. 28 Ewa: a Tale of Korea The property would amount to considerable, and as my father's exchequer was at a low ebb, the propo- sition pleased him, knowing full well that it was a symptom of Mr. Yi becoming a victim of his imagi- nation, and would part with much more of his prop- erty for that Will-o'-the-wisp, governmental prefer- ment. Surely, it seemed that the golden stream that had for years flowed outward had changed its direc- tion to the home of the great Sung-ji. CHAPTER III An Interruption When preparations for our departure to Pyeng- Yang were nearly completed, we were suddenly in- terrupted by the sickness of my father. His illness having so profound an influence upon my future, I find it necessary to relate the incident at this point. He was attacked by one of those terrible, nameless fevers so common in our land. When all simpler remedies had failed to effect a cure, members of the household, with the solicitude usual to our people, called in a sorceress to drive away the demon of the disease. She came on a certain evening, bringing a huge drum and several assistants with her. One of the number was a woman carrying a cymbal. These two persons had the sinister look common to people of their profession, while two others were young and attractive, wearing bright colored garments that showed off well in the torch lights against the dark background of the night. The best sorceress in the country had been pro- cured by the promise of a large sum of money, and the effort to secure her had advertised the matter so well that the neighboring towns turned out in great 29 30 Ewa: a Tale of Korea numhiers to watch the incantations — over the great- est man in North Korea. They were not surprised that he was sick, for what could politically powerful men expect when their evil deeds constantly invited demon possessions? They knew that at such scenes, where large money was at stake to inspire the sor- ceress to display her utmost cunning, there would be uncanny incidents enough to please the most morbid curiosity. My father had been lying on a silk-covered mat- tress spread out on the floor but at the request of the sorceress he was rolled in a mat and brought out into the yard. He seemed too indifferent or too sick to pay any attention to what they were trying to do with him. When all was ready the four women took their places in a half-circle about the sick man. The one with the drum struck it tentatively, paused, glanced at her companions, touched the drum again softly, then beat a long monotonous roll. The cymbals clanged, and the dancers began posturing, keeping time with the beating of drum and cymbals. As the incantations proceeded the beating grew loud and rapid and the dancing more active. Late in the evening one of the bystanders was asked to hold a demon-stick — ^a willow branch about three feet long — over his head in both hands. The woman then announced to the crowd that when the stick should begin to shake beyond the control of Ewa: a Tale of Korea 31 the man holding it, it would be a sign that the demon was in the stick ; that the man would be irresistibly force